Politics
Obamas Infuse Harris’s Party With The Spirit of 2008
Upon hearing thunderous applause for Barack and Michelle Obama, Democrats might have assumed they had traveled back sixteen years.
However, in 2024, the outgoing US president and first lady were using their ability to draw large crowds to support Kamala Harris, another pioneer, for the presidency.
“I feel exactly the same as I did in 2008.” Seeing the couple dazzle the Democratic convention in Chicago, Sherry McClain, an Alabama delegate, remarked, “I’m just excited and energized and just, I’m ready.”
“Obama is the first black woman to bring it home, and it seems like she is bringing it home,” And on November 5th, we are certain that we will prevail.
The audience gave departing President Joe Biden a prolonged and tearful standing ovation during his farewell speech on Monday, but the response to the Obamas was more akin to a frenzy.
The two, who continue to hold great sway inside the Democratic party, were greeted as comeback heroes and had the political public licking their fingers.
As she took the stage in Chicago, the hometown of her husband, Michelle Obama, 60, arguably received the greatest applause of them two.
After all, it wasn’t long before some Democratic party members had been urging her to run for office as the 81-year-old Biden started to show his age and trail Donald Trump in the polls.
And there was an air of nostalgia all about.
“America, hope is making a comeback,” she uttered, mimicking her husband’s 2008 campaign slogan and evoking yet another thunderous applause.
Her message was brief but impactful, urging Democrats to not take anything for granted and warning of the peril of a second Trump presidency.
“Demolished the house”
Chants of “Yes we can” accompanied the 63-year-old Obama’s speech, echoing one of the catchphrases that made him the first Black president of the United States.
Obama purposefully countered by getting the audience to yell “Yes she can,” focusing the attention on Harris and her attempt to become the first female and South Asian commander in chief.
Obama’s frequently uplifting speech served as a reminder of happier times for many Democrats following years of political bombast from Donald Trump and then the embarrassing blunders of the Biden administration.
Carrying three of the blue “VOTE” signs that thousands of delegates had been waving, Richard Brown, 61, a state representative from Missouri, declared, “The Obamas brought the house down tonight.”
“Michelle Obama made the correct and appropriate statement. Hope is once again alive.
Democratic supporter Laurie Osher, 64, of Maine remarked as she exited the ballroom that the Obamas, particularly the former First Lady, had been “fabulous.”
She teasingly said, “He married well.”
“She really laid out all the reasons why Kamala Harris is the best candidate and why we can’t have Trump.”